A proposal to merge Time Warner Cable into a national colossus headed by rival cable provider Comcast is not expected to impact Time Warner Cable jobs locally or in other places of the state — but the plan may have to pass muster with state regulators.

Philadelphia-based Comcast wants to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion, a move that would create a company stretching from New York to Los Angeles, make it near-dominant in broadband Internet, and put Comcast in 19 of the nation's 20 largest TV markets.

On Thursday, Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Joli Plucknette-Farmen said the proposal would have "very little impact on the vast majority" of workers in the state, where the company has 1.2 million residential customers spread throughout the Capital Region, elsewhere upstate, New York City and Long Island.

That's because there is virtually no overlap in the two firms' customer bases. For example, in New York state, Comcast serves about 24,000 households in Putnam County. Its cable TV, Internet and home phone services operate under the Xfinity name.

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The move by Comcast, which involves a stock swap, comes as Time Warner Cable had been fighting off a hostile takeover by Charter Communications of Stamford, Conn. Charter was offering substantially less than Comcast's deal, which equates to nearly $160 per share for Time Warner Cable's stockholders.

Shares of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) closed trading Thursday at $144.81 Up $9.50, or 7 percent for the day.

"We are going to continue to operate locally without any changes at this time," said Plucknette-Farmen. "This merger will take many months to complete."

The company is moving ahead with plans announced last week to hire 45 more salespeople at its New Karner Road call center in Colonie, she said. That could bring total employment there to more than 500. Plucknette-Farmen said the company has 1,700 employees in the Capital Region and in the Hudson Valley.

In announcing their merger plan, the companies said it would create $1.5 billion in undefined operating savings, with half of that coming in the first year.

Gerald Norlander, executive director of the Albany-based Public Utility Law Project of New York, a not-for-profit consumer advocacy group, said it was "too early in the game" to know how the merger, which must undergo federal oversight, might affect customers, prices or competition.

But, he said, existing state rules that regulate telephone companies could give the state Public Service Commission some control over the merger.

Time Warner Cable last year was redefined legally as a telephone company because its services include telephone.

Also, said Norlander, a bill offered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as part of his budget last month also could give the PSC some additional control. Cuomo offered a bill requiring state oversight of "a merger or consolidation of two or more cable television companies" that hold franchises to operate in the state.

Both Comcast and Time Warner hold such franchises.

Calls to the governor's office and state Public Service Commission for comment weren't returned.

Norlander said the state oversight rules for telephone companies employ a "public interest standard" that involves demonstrating "positive benefits to the customers" in any proposed merger.